Personal attitudes and perceived social norms
There is a difference between my willingness to engage with an opposing view and my sense that the people around me expect respectful engagement. The latter is a question about social norms. Our research on inclusivity examines this social environment rather than asking only whether individuals hold favorable attitudes toward other groups.
Evidence across contexts
A 2026 collaborative study in PNAS Nexus examined 12,041 participants in 12 European countries. Perceived inclusivity norms were associated with tolerance, contact, and cooperation amid polarization. The norms concerned equality-based respect, dialogue, and unity. The study was a preregistered survey, not a randomized intervention, so its associations do not by themselves demonstrate that changing a norm will change behavior.
Why schools are an important setting
School-based work in the INCLUSIVITY program approaches a related question through peers and social networks. Rather than treating a class as a collection of isolated individuals, it asks how expectations can become visible through relationships. The Together for Tolerance feasibility study and subsequent longitudinal research form part of this broader program. These studies have different designs and should not be treated as interchangeable tests of one intervention.
Implications for intervention
The practical possibility is not that agreement must precede cooperation. It is that disagreement can take place within shared expectations about how people should be treated. A useful next question is which expectations are credible to students, who communicates them, and whether they remain influential when a disagreement becomes personally important. These are questions for careful intervention research, not assumptions that an attractive message will be enough.